EX-OFFICIAL FOUND DEAD OF ‘TRAUMATIC’ INJURIES

Sheriff’s homicide unit investigating death of former leader booted from council in ’99

A former and often controversial figure in Lake Elsinore politics was found dead in a home Friday night with injuries described by police officials as traumatic.

Authorities identified the victim as George Alongi, 77, who served on the Lake Elsinore City Council in the 1990s and subsequently was elected to the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District board.

Police officers found Alongi in his home on Dolly Drive between Mari Drive and Christina Court in northwest Lake Elsinore after responding to a report of a body in that locale, sheriff’s officials said.

Emergency medical personnel arrived to attempt to render aid, but the man was pronounced dead at the scene, Sgt. Jeff Buompensero of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department’s Central Homicide Unit wrote in a news release.

Police officials did not release the cause of death and provided no further information. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday, Buompensero said in the release.

News of Alongi’s death came as a jolt to those who knew him well.

“It was absolutely traumatic to find out what happened to him,” said civic activist Chris Hyland. “I can’t believe it.”

Hyland said she had known Alongi for 25 years and had visited the home where he had lived with his ex-wife, Barbara Alongi.

“He was a friend of mine,” she said. “I used to spend a lot of time at George and Barbara’s at their house. I knew their kids, their daughters. They were a great family that I loved.”

Wildomar activist Gil Rasmussen said he had known Alongi since the mid-1980s when they worked in an air-conditioning sales business together.

A former minister, Rasmussen, at Alongi’s request, performed the wedding ceremony several years ago when he married his second wife, Grace. Since then, Rasmussen said, he saw less of his former colleague.

“George Alongi was a very interesting man,” Rasmussen said. “He was a wonderful guy.”

A former Marine and Korean War veteran, Alongi during his days as a public officeholder was both popular and polarizing. Friends remembered him as gruff and outspoken on the City Council dais, but he was also “very generous,” according to Rasmussen.

“I knew he helped some people who otherwise would have been homeless,” he said. “For years, because of his beard, he was Santa Claus when they did the Main Street (winter holiday festival).”

From a public standpoint, Alongi was probably most well-known for getting booted off the Lake Elsinore City Council in 1999 after a jury found him guilty of malfeasance in office for failing to accurately report financial interests as required by state conflict-of-interest laws. Specifically, Alongi, a general contractor who also invested in land, had bought properties in the city’s redevelopment zone, which created a conflict with his role as a member of the city’s redevelopment board.

Rasmussen contends Alongi knew the purchases created violations, but did it anyway because he disagreed with the restrictions.

Still, Alongi was popular enough after his time on the council to win a seat on the water board.

In recent years, court records indicate problems between Alongi and his second wife. In an agreement with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, he pleaded guilty in 2010 to one misdemeanor count of spousal abuse.